Six busloads of 150 tech entrepreneurs boarded the Startup Bus in a 48-hour race to throw together a viable business as they travel to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas.

Six busloads of 150 tech entrepreneurs boarded the Startup Bus in a 48-hour race to throw together a viable business as they travel to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas.

But the goal of the Startup Bus is not just to get the future Dennis Crowleys and Biz Stones of the world together to kick back a few beers on Sixth Street down in Austin. It's a competition. In all, there are 40 teams of "buspreneurs" (as they're called) that are trying to come up with the best plan for a new startup by the time they reach their destination. The prize? Potential funding, among other perks that are being determined, but all of the participants will no doubt benefit from the undeniable networking opportunities afforded at one the biggest tech conferences on the planet.

The busses disembarked from six tech locales: Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Cleveland, which might not be a city traditionally associated with the tech industry, but project founder Elias Bizannes said part of the point of the Startup Bus is to "raise awareness of the different regions across America." Cleveland, for one is trying to brand itself as "the Silicon Belt."

The trip started off with introductions, followed by start up pitches from the participants. Former Googler Pamela Fox is riding with the Silicon Valley Crew, and out of the 31 passengers she's riding with, 12 pitched. As the bus made its way through the Arizona desert Wednesday afternoon eight of those ideas were cooking. Fox's idea, SpeakerMeter, is a tool used to evaluate speakers in real-time and is one of the startups in the works.

"It's a good atmosphere of cooperation," she said. "Part of the point of the experience is to network with people. People are happy to answer questions about their area of expertise, and there's a huge range of expertise."

Some of the projects will actually be made into businesses; others are just throw-away models. But Bizannes focuses more on experience that comes out of the Startup Bus than tangible results.

"The real value of this isn't even the product that comes out of it," he told PCMag. "The whole point of it is to develop people."

Bizannes said that even if the companies created fail, it will be successful for the buspreneurs because of the experience gained. 2010 yielded two winners, neither of which turned into anything of substance. But Bizannes firmly believes that the trip can be life-changing for the participants, which is why he started it.

Each bus is overseen by "conductors," Startup Bus alumni who moderate each of the vehicles. Each of these people will pick a finalist team from their bus, and then six teams will duke it out to be the overall winner.

"It's partially about the experience and partially about the product and company we're making," said developer Jon Gottfried, who is riding the New York bus. His project is Lemonade Stand, a business focused on providing a platform to easily buy and sell items locally that he describes as "Instagram meets Craigslist."

"It's definitely a very interesting experience going on a bus trip slash hackathon to SXSW. Part of it is building connections with New York developers."

Gottfried's description of the atmosphere on the bus echoes what Bizannes' said is his goal for the project.

"It's very noncompetitive and people are basically helping each other out, giving each other feedback. All of the team members are working together. It's very fun, very lighthearted.

Passengers were whittled down from around 600 applications to a select group of 150 entrepreneurs, developers, coders, and business expects. It's an increase from the group of 25 buspreneurs that were chosen out of 50 applicants in 2010. Bizannes added five additional busses to this year's trip, and quips that next year the project will send a fleet of 36 busses to Austin. While he's joking, Bizannes said the Startup Bus project won't get any smaller.

People can visit the StartUp Bus site and vote on their favorite project starting Thursday. A panel of judges will weigh in on the best ideas on Monday evening.

Leslie Horn joined the PCMag team as a news reporter in the fall of 2010. She covers a wide range of topics from digital media to the latest Apple rumor. After graduating with a degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Missouri, she wrote for Out & About, a travel guide in coastal Maine. One of her favorite reporting experiences was covering the 2008 Olympics from Beijing. She travels every chance she gets, and recently spent time backpacking along the coast of Brazil. Though she...
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